J Dilla's Donuts (33 1/3)

If there was ever an album we've released which could inspire a 130-page book, it's J Dilla's Donuts – one of our proudest releases, by an artist we were blessed to work with, and a work that took on special significance when J Dilla passed away just after it's release. 33 1/3 books (a series devoted to classic albums) is publishing the title J Dilla's Donuts on April 24th.

Author Jordan Ferguson interviewed pretty much everyone associated with the album's creation - Stones Throw's PB Wolf, Jeff Jank, Eothen Alapatt - and many of Dilla's associates in his L.A. and Detroit years. The book is not merely a behind the scenes look at the creation of Donuts, but a look at Dilla's career as a whole, his influences, his music styles, and the art of the music itself. The jacket reads, "Drawing from philosophy, critical theory and musicology, as well as Dilla's own musical catalog, Jordan Ferguson shows that the contradictory, irascible and confrontational music found on Donuts is as much a result of an artist's declining health as it is an example of what scholars call 'late style,' placing the album in a musical tradition that stretches back centuries."